Russian Super League - Nikolai Kulemin (Toronto Maple Leafs) stole the show in the hard fought contest between his HC Metallurg with HC Sibir, when he broke through two defensemen, put the goalie to the ice, and then managed to force the puck around the netminder while falling to the ice. Alexei Tereschenko (Dallas Stars) played very well for Ak Bars, aggressively attacking the opponent and driving towards the net. He scored once, but also almost scored again, but instead hit the post. A strong game from a talented young center. Former Montreal Canadiens goaltending prospect Vadim Tarasov (Montreal Canadiens) performed well for HC Salavat Yulayev, stopping 28 of CSKA’s 30 shots. He split regular season duties, but has come on strong as of late. READ MORE

Vadim Tarasov is not a classic smallish Russian goalie, standing at 6 feet tall and 176 pounds. Vadim is a very solid skater, often leaving the crease to clear the puck out of the zone and assisting on goals on several occasions. He has great hockey sense, understanding when the defense needs his help. Vadim is also very cool and confident, a necessary quality to succeed in the NHL. He has a very fast glove side, constantly using it to stifle opponents. Vadim is also very flexible with great reaction. In fact, according to a Metallurg Novokuznetsk hockey observer, Darya Shamovskaya who personally knows the goalie, Vadim’s favorite maneuver is to go into a split and then catch the puck with his glove. Vadim has cut down on this move because a lot of the players and the management called it "showboating". Vadim Tarasov possesses the qualities of a team leader, keeping his less then spectacular team in the game on many occasions during the 2000-01 season.

Back In Russia:

Vadim Tarasov was born in Ust Kamenogorsk, USSR, which later became part of Kazakhstan. He started his professional career in the Ust Kamenogorsk junior development system, playing for the Army Sports Club (SKA) of Kamenogorsk. In 1994 Vadim joined the City of Belov professional team of the 2nd League. After a short stint with this semi-professional team Vadim was invited to Novokuznetsk to join Metallurg’s development system. Vadim never looked back, securing a spot on Metallurg’s main lineup in 1995, playing 27 games and compiling a respectable 2.66 GAA.

After Vadim’s great performance during the 1999-00 season ,where his team earned the bronze medals of the Super League, he had one more year left with Metallurg, but ran into a serious legal problem by allegedly signing a contract with Avangard Omsk. Allegedly Vadim signed a contract with Avangard’s president Bardin, and received a signing bonus. He then returned to Novokuznetsk and agreed to remain there, but Bardin refused to take back the signing bonus, attempting to force Tarasov’s transfer on legal grounds. Vadim was threatened with a potential suspension of up to a year from the Russian Hockey Federation, but fortunately he was not suspended. Metallurg retained his rights, forced to compensate Avangard (however the financial amount was very small). Prior to this season Metallurg Nk lost a lot of players to free agency and did not refill their ranks properly to improve on their bronze medal finish of last season. Vadim continued his reliable and stable performance, but the team’s lapses were obvious and it did not make it to the playoffs.

Early in his career Vadim played in a couple of tournaments for Kazakhstan’s National team. He was the team’s starting goalie at the 1994 Asia games. His participation in these international tournaments almost disqualified him for playing for the Russian National Team when he became a Russian citizen this year. However, since he played for Kazakhstan before he turned 18, he was not automatically disqualified by the IIHF from playing for another nation. A similar case arose with Yevgeniy Nabokov, and that goalie played for Kazakhstan after turning 18, so automatically becoming disqualified from playing for Russia, which citizenship he took a few years ago. After all these legal details were cleared up, Vadim was cleared to represent Russia in International competition. Vadim’s first chance came at the Baltica Cup in Moscow in front of the home crowd. There he was an instant hit after allowing no goals in the 5 periods of hockey he played for Russia (Vadim came in at the beginning of the second period of Russia’s game against the Czech Republic where the team cam back from being down 4:1 largely due to Tarasov’s great performance in the last two periods). Vadim Tarasov was also in goal for the Russian National Team at the Swedish Games, allowing 7 goals in 3 games, a 2.33 GAA. Vadim will also likely represent team Russia at the 2001 World Championships in Germany along side with Mikhail Shtalenkov, unless IIHF will deny him permission to play in an IIHF sanctioned event or Nikolai Khabibulin decides to play for Team Russia.

NHL Outlook:

Vadim Tarasov was drafted by the Montreal Canadians with their 9th pick, 196th overall in the 1999 NHL Entry Draft. After Vadim’s solid performance over the last couple of seasons, it is becoming increasingly likely that the Canadians found a diamond in the rough and finally used their draft pick wisely. If Vadim gets to play at the 2001 World Championships, a solid performance will definitely help his chances at the Montreal’s 2001 training camp. According to sources that prefer to remain unnamed but are close to Vadim, he will not be returning to Novokuznetsk next season and will attend Montreal’s training camp in hopes of securing a spot on the NHL team’s main lineup. After the troubled 2001-02 season, Tarasov went back to Russia to Novokuznetsk. However, he is still considered a prospect, due to the continuing interest in him, as he played very well while in North America.